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Home Front: Culture Wars |
Adrian Cronauer Update |
2005-08-26 |
From Rich Galen's Mullings - an update on one from Viet Nam who's done well... Adrian Cronauer, occasional lunch pal, was standing next to me at the check-in kiosk at Reagan National the other day. Where are you off to? When do you get back? What timeâs your flight? Want to wait with me in the Crown Room? Meet you at security. He was flying to Salt Lake City to speak at the VFW Convention and his flight didnât leave for a couple of hours so we shared a cup of coffee in the Delta Crown Room. The first time we were scheduled to meet Adrian warned me, âI donât look like Robin Williams. I look like Robert Bork.â Mr. Cronauer is best known, of course, for the way Robin Williams portrayed him in the movie, âGood Morning, Vietnam.â But that is not the best thing heâs done. The best thing heâs done is what heâs doing now. Adrian Cronauer, a government lawyer (law school was paid for, in part, by the screenplay he wrote which led to the famous movie) devotes his time and considerable talent as far away from being a wisecracking military disc jockey as one can get: He works with the Pentagon unit charged with locating the remains of American military personnel who are Missing in Action. Cronauer doesnât do shtick, doesnât do one-liners, isnât manic, and doesnât speak in rapid-fire sentences. He is a serene gentleman who goes to uncomfortable places to meet with sometimes uncooperative people to help bring American heroes home to the families who kissed them goodbye, often, many decades earlier. Recently, Army Captain David Smith, as reported in the Dayton Daily News by Ismail Turay, Jr. was âburied with military honors at the Dayton National Cemetery, bringing closure for a family which has grieved for more than 36 years.â âHow did you find him,â I asked Adrian? âGood detective work.â The Vietnamese arenât terribly helpful, he said, but neither do they obstruct. âIf you ask the right question, theyâll answer it, but they wonât suggest which question to ask next.â A part of the process was described by reporter Rod Duren on the Gulf1 website: The recovery teams go to sites previously identified by investigational teams as having a high likelihood of American service member remains present. Sites are selected from "real-time" Search and Rescue log entries, witness accounts from either U.S. forces in the area at the time of the crash or locals through subsequent interviews. The Pentagon believes there are some 88,000 service members unaccounted for including 78,000 from World War II; 8,100 from Korea; 1,800 from Vietnam and one from the Gulf War. Cronauer said that there have been times when the only government-to-government contact between the US and North Korea has been through the work of his unit. Out of the glare of any media spotlight, Adrian Cronauer and his teammates will go anywhere on the planet to check out any report that the remains of an American service member have been found â or might be found â in a particular spot. From a piece by reporter Debbie Bryce in the Idaho State Journal: Vickie Stephensen was a 35-year-old mother of four when her husband, Col. Mark L. Stephensen, was listed as missing in action in 1967. She held out hope for more than 20 years that he would be returned to her. In April 1988 she was notified that her husbandâs remains had been identified. âWe were relieved and grateful to get him back,â she said. âI always wondered where he was. Now I know. Heâs in Riverton, Utah. And I stop to see him oftenâ Ismail Turay wrote, âTwo days before his death, [Cpt.] Smith was scheduled to return home to watch [his] niece, Betty Boisel, graduate from high school. âHe's just a little late,â a teary-eyed Boisel, 54, said after the funeral service. âBut he's finally home.â The United States will never stop searching for its missing service members, Adrian Cronauer once told me. Good hunting, my friend. |
Posted by:Frank G |
#3 God bless him and the rest of the team. |
Posted by: 49 pan 2005-08-26 23:05 |
#2 Leave no man behind still means something, and I'm damn glad to see it in action. EP |
Posted by: ElvisHasLeftTheBuilding 2005-08-26 16:47 |
#1 This is one of the most encouraging things I've read in a while. Thanks. |
Posted by: RWV 2005-08-26 16:18 |